Friday, September 16, 2011

A New Adventure for Our Family

It's been quite a long time since I've posted. Lots of things have been happening around here. We had a terrific summer, throughout which Jeremy and I pondered and prayed about changes for our family and our goals for the future.

It was with nervous anticipation that we welcomed the new school year and the changes that the year would bring.

We have decided to school our girls at home this school year. There were lots of reasons we decided this was best for our family: our choice of curriculum, building stronger relationships, better use of time, and many more.

We have now completed our first four weeks of schooling at home. I have been pleasantly surprised at the results! I had no idea what to expect but some things I've observed so far are:

* that we work together as a family to accomplish things (sometimes Laura will help Lindsay with what she is learning, sometimes Lindsay entertains Nathan while I help Laura, sometimes Jeremy helps the girls accomplish tasks at night or on the weekend, etc)

* the girls are pitching in more with housework (simply because they are home more and can)

* I love the feeling of accomplishment that comes with knowing I taught them a new skill!

* My schedule is easily adapted for my busy toddler that still needs lots of attention from his mama

* I enjoy knowing everything we are studying at "school" so that I can point out real world examples when we come across them in our non-school time

* RELATIONSHIPS! Laura and I have had lots of discussions on lots of topics from the mundane, everyday stuff to important moments spent studying the Bible. We have so much more time to talk now. I treasure the afternoons when Lindsay's school is over & she disappears upstairs to do whatever it is that first graders to in their free time, Nathan is napping & I work on orders from my shop and she does her school work and we just talk about whatever comes up & is brewing in her young brain. It seems like we never had time for this when she was in public school and when we did have time to talk, we were so disconnected that we couldn't just pick up where we left off.

* I love that my evening is no longer filled with fighting about getting homework done. Yay!

* Freedom! We can choose what to do when or what not to do! We are looking forward to being able to take trips and excursions in the middle of the school day.

A few things that we miss about public school:

* feeling of being part of a whole & feeling of belonging at school

* the girls miss their friends

* I thought I would miss "my" time while they were away at school. I don't. I suppose there are moments when I do but for the most part, I really do enjoy have everybody at home!

My biggest challenge to schooling at home is a busy toddler. He is into EVERYTHING while we are trying to do school. It's getting better though. I'm figuring out ways to keep him occupied and also trying to squeeze in time while the girls are both busy to give him a bit of one on one attention for a minute or two.

8 comments:

Very cool! Mad props, I don't know how you (and Beth) do it with Nathan (and Diana) around...today I was actually WATCHING Emmett, but he was behind two books stacked on top of my old stamping supplies, so I couldn't see the bottom half of his face. He was methodically LICKING stamp pads (blue, black, and yellow). Anyway, it's very sweet to hear about your family relationships and how they are augmented by having the kids home all day. Miss and love you guys!

About Me

I am married to my college sweetheart, Jeremy, and am mother to two precious little girls, Laura (9) and Lindsay (7) and one handsome little boy, Nathan (1). When they are not keeping me busy, I pursue my love affair with scrapbooking.